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You Can Still Be Transgender If You Don’t Feel Physical Dysphoria – Here’s Why

Has anyone ever implied that you’re “faking” being transgender because you don’t feel like you’re “born in the wrong body?”

The narrative of feeling like a person of one gender “trapped” in another gender’s body is true for some, but it doesn’t apply to all trans people. If you don’t experience physical dysphoria, that doesn’t mean you’re “not trans enough.”

But it hurts to be excluded based on this narrative, so here’s a comic to help you get through it. This explains the origins of the myth that trans people must experience physical dysphoria – and exactly what this misconception gets wrong.

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

You Can Still Be Transgender and Not Experience Physical Dysphoria, and Here’s Why

Panel 1

Panel 2

Person A: They said that I can’t be trans if I don’t experience physical dysphoria.

Person B: Well, there’s your problem! Come over here and sit down, I can explain it for you.

Panel 3

(An image of a trans person yelling to the sky)

Text: The idea that the core of being trans is…

Trans Person: I feel like a woman trapped in a man’s body!

Text: …even while true for some, is a gross simplification when applied to such a huge and diverse group of people (it excludes the whole nonbinary community, for starters)!

Panel 4

(Image of a person walking defensively down the street, surrounded and followed by eyes with the male symbol in their pupils)

Text: There’s other ways that trans people can feel about their gender besides just physical dysphoria. Trans people can also feel social dysphoria – a feeling of not being seen as how you truly are by others.

Panel 5

(A trans masculine person radiates warmth, touching their torso, which is covered by a binder.)

Text: Another feeling is gender euphoria, which is a feeling of rightness, completeness, and well-being trans people sometimes feel when their body or how they’re perceived reflects what they consider to be their true self.

Panel 6

(Another trans person simply shrugs.)

Text: Trans people can feel any number of these feelings, or none of them at all!

Trans person: I am who I am. I don’t feel particularly bothered that other people don’t know everything about me at first glance.

Panel 7

(Person B speaks while Person A pays close attention.)

Person B: Here’s the thing – the “x trapped in y’s body” narrative wasn’t started by trans people as a way to express themselves, but was a way that cis people have categorized us in the past.

Panel 9

Person B: In comes Harry Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin wrote a series of pieces, including The Transsexual Phenomenon, which categorized trans people with a series of signs and symptoms. (Dr. Benjamin was considered an ally to a lot of trans people at the time, especially in North America, as he didn’t reject their identities and wanted them to be able to access medical transition.)

Panel 11

(Person B gestures.)

Person B: And here’s the thing – whatever trans people do to get access to what they need in a transphobic society is valid! But at some point, some of us became as much the gatekeepers, repeating those same words that cis people had placed on us instead of supporting ourselves and each other in our infinite complexity!

Panel 12

Person A: Whoa… so this whole “you’re not trans enough” thing is just survival strategies in our community gone astray?

Person B: Yep! It’s important to work on unlearning all the subtle bits of cissexism and transphobia in our society and support each other. Just remember that you know yourself better than anyone, alright?

Ronnie Rene Ritchie is a Contributing Comic Artist for Everyday Feminism, an illustrator, and storyteller working out of Peterborough, Ontario. Since graduating from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon with a BFA in Illustration, Ronnie has had work featured in galleries and sex shops across North America, and their autobiographical webcomic, GQutie, has seen its popularity soar online. Learn more about GQutie, Ronnie’s illustration, or follow them on Twitter @ronithebear.